


Night Circus

by melon_love



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Creatures & Monsters, Fantasy, Female Kim Minseok | Xiumin, Mystical Creatures, Other
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-04
Updated: 2019-01-04
Packaged: 2019-10-04 11:29:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,197
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17303795
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/melon_love/pseuds/melon_love
Summary: After being banned from seeing the sunlight ever again, the Smiling Mage who called himself "Chen" decided to built a Night Circus to bring joy and light to humans even in the darkest hours. Other outcasted creatures of the night find a home in the enormous tent and a purpose in entertaining the audience as they all play their roles in Chen's show. This is the tale of how they all met and how they live with each other.





	Night Circus

_1817 - Paris_

 

He heard the bell of the front door ring but didn’t turn to look who had entered the shop. He had to concentrate on choosing the right kind of fireworks, so he wouldn’t blow up the tent...again. These looked quite promising, though he wished there would be a huge one he could use for the grande finale.

Loud, shrill laughter could be heard from the front of the store, a shriek and then the beautiful melody of a child giggling.

A small smile escaped him.

There were still a few supplies he had to find to finalize the last steps for his great new idea, so he stored the fireworks in his magical shopping basket and continued roaming around the shop.

The child that had laughed so sweetly, a young blonde girl with big round eyes and frills all over her clothes, was now standing in the book aisle and flipped through a fairytale collection, fascinated by the colourful illustrations. As he beheld that the smile on his face grew.

“There is nothing more precious than childlike wonder!”, he thought.

While skimming through some books himself ...“ _How to tame a harpy_ ” “ _Clownery for Dummies_ ” “ _Tents - The bigger, the better_ ”... he felt a small tug on his robe. He looked down to see the young girl right next to him, holding out the fairytale book in front of her. Her expression seemed to be a little disgruntled as if she was frustrated with something.

“Do you want me to read something for you?”

Immediately her face lit up, nodding so hard her golden locks were bobbing up and down. So he took the book and her hand and led her to the small seating area at the end of the aisle. As they sat down he opened the index and tried to decide which fairytale he would read to her, his conscience ignoring one particular story. But since he didn’t know what the girl liked he showed her the opened page and asked which one she wanted to hear.

Without even looking at the pictures she exclaimed: “Mage! The Smiling mage!”

He had to suppress a heavy sigh. Of course it had to be that one.

As the first page of the story was opened, small light bulbs ascended from the paper one meter above the book and started to create the image of the first scene. That was one of his favorite parts of picture books like these and quite often he felt sorry for all the human children that would never be able to see these wondrous lights telling the fairytale alongside the reader.

He cleared his throat and began to read…

 

“ _A long, long time ago, when the human world was still wrapped in darkness, there was a wandering mage. No one knew his name but everyone recognized him from the blinding smile that was at all times shining on his face. That is why people started to call him >The Smiling Mage<._

_The Smiling Mage was kind and trained in the arts of healing and creating, so a lot of humans came to him for help and advice. And since he loved humans from the bottom of his heart, he always did his best to oblige._

_As the years went by, the mage realized that most of the humans’ problems were caused by not enough and unhealthy food and missing warmth. So he set out to look for a solution to help humans improve their lives._

_Inside a deep forest, long forgotten by mortal kin, he encountered a group of gods, as old as the forest itself. They all sat around a hot, shining and glittering, moving pit of lights. The forest spirits whispered into his ear: “fi-re”. And realization hit him that this fi-re was exactly what the humans would need._

_Without hesitation he approached the gods, showing his respects by bowing deeply. Gently and with a smile yet again on his face he asked them if they could share their fi-re with him and the mortals he promised to help and protect._

_These old gods however were not gentle at all. They were arrogant and cruel. They would never allow humans to thrive for they themselves would lose their sense of superiority._

_They laughed at the mage, calling him ludicrous for bonding with mortals and shooed him away. Still the mage really needed the fi-re in order to help the humans. So he waited till dawn, when the gods withdrew themselves but the fi-re was still burning, and made out to steal it. The fi-re’s magic clung to him as if it knew his purpose and wanted to join. He then ran for his life to leave the forest._

_The gods only noticed the next night that a part of their precious fi-re had gone missing. In their fury they searched everywhere for the mage and the moment they had found him, they realized they could not take his life, for the fi-re’s magic was wrapped around his very being and soul._

_So they took away the very thing he had obtained by stealing: his light. He would never see the daylight again or he would perish and the mage’s gift to the mortals, which was fire, would return to the ancient forest, leaving humans once again in darkness._

_Hence, since then he wandered the nights, watching over humans who finally could thrive and develop thanks to his gift. Seeing their smiles, hearing their laughter filled his night-dark existence with the love and light he needed._ ”

 

As he finished the story, the light bulbs returned to the pages and the pretty girl grinned from ear to ear.

“Thank you! This is my favorite story. One day I want to be as helpful and gentle as the Smiling Mage!”, the girl exclaimed.

He didn’t know how to feel and react to that. So instead of saying anything he just patted her head, returned the book to her waiting, small hands and made his way to the cashier. Behind him he could hear the girl giggling when her parents found her and started tickling her.

He braced the basket on top of the counter and told his friend, the shop owner, to send the goods to the usual address.

“Address, my ass! A forgotten trail in a forest is not an address, you smiling idiot! If you weren’t leaving half your fortune in my shop, I would have kicked your cloaked ass out already! Address! Pah! And next you’re gonna tell me that ‘Chen’ is indeed your real name…” The shop owner kept on babbling while preparing the magical supplies Chen had purchased, not noticing that the mage was already retreating to exit the shop.

Before he stepped through the door, he turned once again to the blonde girl finding her already watching him. He loosened the magical damper on his appearance, so that his magic shone through his pores and put on his biggest smile for the endearing child. Whose eyes widened so much they looked like plates and who grasped for air. Not leaving her a chance to say anything he disappeared into the night of the parisian streets.

**Author's Note:**

> Hopefully you enjoyed this little fairytale like-prologue :) I wrote this story for a challenge in another community and it became so dear to me that I just had to share it with more people. This is my first ever fanfic and I am quite nervous about it hahahaha As I am usually a fanartist, I also drew my characters but unfortunately, I cannot upload them here. If you're interested you can check out my Instagram... @_melon_love_ Hehehehe


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